The Science of the World Trade Center Collapses

Responding to the World Trade Center (WTC 1, 2, and 7) collapses on September 11, 2001, the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) undertook an investigation to determine what factors contributed to the buildings' structural collapse. Equally important, NIST was trying to identify what could be done to make buildings safer, less likely to structurally fail, in a catastrophic attack or a natural disaster.

Many of the documents, reports, and other material prepared and published by the NIST are available at its NIST and the World Trade Center website. Some of the documents are highly technical and not light reading.